Recently tenant organizations--and even a tenants' movement--have been formed in many American cities. These organizations, which try to improve housing and neighborhood conditions by acting as brokers and lobbyists with landlords, city housing agencies, and city and state legislatures, have arisen in part because of the rapid deterioration and short supply of urban housing. The study asks two main questions: what are the functions, both present and potential, of tenant organizations? and under what conditions do tenant organizations mobilize effectively? In seeking to answer these questions it focuses upon two aspects of tenant activity: on understanding the dynamics of the individual tenant organization (that is, under what conditions tenant organizations are formed, maintain themselves over time, and achieve their goals), and on assessing the scope of the tenant movement as a whole (that is, the antecedents, extent, and direction of tenant mobilization; the forms which tenant organizations are likely to take, their opportunities for various levels success, and their impact on the city as a whole). The study will be conducted over three years in three complementary units. Unit I consists of intensive case studies of 25 tenant groups in New York City. In-depth qualitative data will be collected for the sharpening and refinement of present hypotheses. Unit II will test these hypotheses in a survey of 150 tenant organizations--450 leaders and 1,500 members--mostly in New York City, but touching base also with major groups in other urban centers in the USA. Unit III assesses the movement as a whole, through both an historical analysis of past tenant organizations since the 1890s and a weighing of the trends in the current wave of activity. In doing so, it places the findings of Units I and II in dynamic long-range perspective.